192 Lamplugh : Man as an Insiniment of Research. 



relationships or to trouble himself with the technicalities by 

 which these relationships are conventionally expressed. 



In this connection we may profitably consider for a moment 

 the methods by which we transmit knowledge, and the diffi- 

 culties that, in varying degree, we all encounter in the process. 



The Transmission of Knowledge. 



The difficulty of accurate expression is one of man's funda- 

 mental imperfections as an instrument of research. Our 

 customary modes of intercommunication, slowly evolved from 

 their beginnings in the expression of simple physical wants, 

 have been gradually forced into use for conveying abstruse 

 ideas by conventional symbolisms and subterfuges ; but they 

 are radically defective for the purposes of scientific demon- 

 stration. 



Everyone who has tried to translate his observations into 

 accurate description must have felt the inadequacy of language 

 to convey even such simple qualities as the colours and forms 

 of objects when these are at all exceptional ; while to express 

 the more complex relations of a subject in words is often found 

 well-nigh impossible. 



Yet unless the difficulty be overcome — unless, in fact, we 

 qualify not only as observing, but also as recording, instru- 

 ments the new knowledge we may have acquired remains 

 merely personal, and may fade out, making no addition to the 

 heritable knowledge called Science. 



To eke out the insufficienc}' of language we are constantly 

 inventing new methods of expression, and trying experiments 

 therewith ; so that generally the most arduous and often the 

 most lengthy task in research-work is to devise or select the 

 proper means of registering the results. Hence arise the 

 symbolisms and technicalities that make modern scientific 

 literature so unintelligible and even repellent to those who 

 lack opportunity or inclination to master its hieroglyphics. 

 With more or less success we minimize our difficulties by the 

 use of symbols, formulae, figures, diagrams, tables, photographs 

 and pictures of many kinds ; and with each advance of know- 

 ledge we advance also in the art of transmitting ideas with 

 definiteness, struggling patiently towards the ideal standard of 

 certitude. 



But in spite of our care, it is still often found that the dis- 



Naturalist, 



